June 9, 2007 - Tropical Cyclone Gonu

This image, captured by the MODIS on the Terra satellite, shows Tropical Cyclone Gonu on June 5, 2007 as a Category 4 storm.

The storm increased in strength up to a Category 5, before weakening to a Category 1 as it neared the Arabian Peninsula. Despite this, Tropical Cyclone Gonu was responsible for at least 28 fatalities in the region, mostly as a result of flooding, said news reports. In Oman's capital city of Muscat, torrential rains turned streets into rivers of water in this normally arid region. In addition to the 25 confirmed fatalities in Oman, at least 26 other people were reported missing. Iran had reported 3 deaths as a result of the storm as of June 7, 2007.

Although the center of Gonu never made landfall in Oman, it came very close to the northeast coastline where it dumped upwards up 200 millimeters of rain (8 inches, shown in dark red). The capital region of Muscat is on the coast where some of the heaviest rain fell. Despite further weakening as it traversed the Gulf of Oman between Oman and southern Iran, Gonu dumped substantial amounts of rain in southern Iran (broad green area) with locally heavy amounts. The mountainous terrain near the coast of Oman and Iran posed an additional hazard to coastal regions. Heavy rain falling on the steep mountains sent torrents of fast-moving floodwater down to the coastal areas.